Book Feast - A Celebration of 1000 Books
Over the weekend I hit a major milestone – I bought my 1000th book for my library! Books are a huge part of my life, and my heavily curated library is this most important thing I own. So hitting 1000 books is a huge deal for me. And the best way I could think to celebrate it was by doing a giant book-themed feast. I made five dishes, each one based on or related to a specific book that I’ve read and loved. All these dishes were delicious, and I’d happily make them all again. All in all it was a fun way to spend an evening and celebrate the joys of reading and books.
Stuffed Mushrooms – Alice in Wonderland/Lord of the Rings
This was the first thing I thought of for the Book Feast. As soon as I decided to do this, I thought “mushrooms for Alice in Wonderland.” Of course, mushrooms are one of hobbits’ favorite foods. There is even a chapter in The Fellowship of the Rings called “A Shortcut to Mushrooms.” Therefore, a mushroom dish was absolutely necessary. I debated a bit over how to do it but ended up with stuffed mushrooms as my appetizer. These are easy to make, and good bite-sized snacks.
Seaweed Salad – Pachinko
Pachinko is one of the best books I’ve read in the past six months and definitely the best historical fiction novel. The book is about the lives of Koreans who live in Japan across the course of the 20th century, so I decided to make Japanese seaweed salad for my second course. Partially because it is far easier for me to get Japanese ingredients than Korean ones. It’s a simple dish, just rehydrated seaweed – I used wakame – and a light dressing. And it’s delicious. I accidentally rehydrated way too much seaweed, but it makes a great part of a light lunch too.
Glazed Carrots – Harry Potter
There are loads of dishes mentioned in Harry Potter and I knew I had to do something from the series for this feast. Luckily for me my best friend gave me a Harry Potter Cookbook a few years back. Flipping through it, and discarding all the desserts and meat recipes, I landed on making glazed carrots. I used honey and it worked extremely well. Carrots are already sweet, but fortunately this recipe just made them even more delicious, rather than overly sweet.
Corn Pudding – If you Lived in Colonial Times
I first read this book when I was five years old. The “If you lived books” are history books geared towards children. I loved the series, but the Colonial Times book was hands down my favorite. I’d read it so many times the answer to the question “What did people eat?” is engrained into my brain permanently. The answer – corn! One of the things specifically listed was corn pudding. Rather than making a sweet one, I found a recipe more akin to a Yorkshire pudding or souffle. It was a bit bland, but I added some shredded cheddar cheese and then it was perfect.
Mead – American Gods and Poppy Seed Cake – The Poppy Seed Cake
American Gods is one of my five favorite books of all times. But rather than make a dish from the book, I decided to have mead, which is featured in one of the key scenes in the beginning to seal a bargain between two characters. As mead is sweet, I had this for dessert with poppy seed cake. The Poppy Seed Cake was a Russian children’s book I no longer own but read a number of times as a kid. Most poppy seed cake recipes required either an extremely large number of poppy seeds, yeast dough, or both. But I was able to find a cake that I could bake in a loaf pan that turned out great. As a bonus, it also made a good breakfast with tea the next morning.
